Changing Seasons, Changing Times
by Kaeru Shisho
Summary: A short story about change and finality set in fall. Xelloss bestows gifts to Lina and company, saving the best to last. XxZ complete revised 2004


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**Changing Seasons, Changing Times** -- 2004 revision 

Note: We do not own the Slayers characters, but are borrowing them for purpose of creating an amusing fanfiction short story. This is based on a story we entered in a fall contest many years ago. We updated it and present it for your pleasure once again. Please enjoy:

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"What a delicious idea, Xelloss! Though it's not very demon-like of you to treat us all to a picnic, is it?" Amelia asked, while sorting through her colorful fall leaf collection. 

There was no answer from the dark figure. Xelloss was staring over her head, unresponsive.

"That's right, you don't even eat food, huh?" agreed the lanky blond seated in the dry grass nearby. Gourry thought it was rude of the man, demon or no, to disregard the princess and not answer her.

"Hey, Xelloss, you're being talked at over here!" shouted Lina. Xelloss was acting in an odd manner, that was sure. "You're the one who invited us. So pay attention, look alive…and open that picnic basket," she added with a greedy gleam in her eye. Lina would have unfastened the latch immediately on eye contact, had Xelloss' unassailable locking spell not held its seal.

"My, my, Lina!" Xelloss plastered on a pleasant expression and tilted his head toward her. "You are eager today, but I know that you are capable of being a little more patient. We are still waiting for someone to arrive."

Xelloss paused, his eyes drifting past her head. Lina scanned his face for some clue as to why he had invited them all to this place at this time.

Xelloss sighed, "Remember your wandering... shaman friend?" His tone was smooth but with a tinge of something akin to sadness. Even his ever-present smiling visage was lacking conviction.

"Zelgadiss," Lina supplied. "Yeah, sure."

"He probably won't come," Amelia whispered wistfully, "He's never even visited Seyruun since Darkstar..."

Xelloss sharply interrupted the young lady's somber reflections, "Perhaps you didn't offer him what he wanted, Princess?"

"Oh and I suppose _you_ could?" snapped Lina. "The only enticement for Zel is the Lure of the Cure. And since that's something you have denied knowledge of for years, I'm sure he wouldn't trust you enough to think you'd suddenly conjure up one now and simply give it to him over a picnic. 'Oh and here, my good fellow, have some cure with that salami?' Right..."

Lina was growing more and more aware of how famished she felt and how tantalizing the basket of food appeared. Trading retorts with the purple-haired demon helped distract her mind from imagining the contents of the basket sitting so enticingly close. Briefly. Why if she stretched her arm a bit more… she _just_ might reach...

"Hmm, ah here he comes now." Xelloss said visibly brightening. He straightened his shoulders and said to the approaching young man, "You had me worried."

Zelgadiss threw back his hood and shook his wiry hair free from the tangling cloth, "Worried that I might not show, or that I _would?_" He didn't wait for an answer. Instead, Zelgadiss turned to his fellow travelers of past adventures in greetings, "Hello, everyone. Lina, you and Gourry still robbing bandits?"

"Mostly, but the pickings are slim, what with the good job the Princess of Seyruun here is doing to banish evil and corruption," Lina said grinning over at her pretty friend.

Amelia blushed and could hardly meet Zel's eyes, not that he was searching for hers.

"Lina's been helping me look for a new sword," added Gourry, "But I'm sure I'll never find another as fine as the Sword of Light."

"Probably not, but the one at your side appears to wear well for you." In order to assuage the confused expression on Gourry's face, Zel added, "I am referring to Lina, of course."

Gourry grinned and nodded, while Lina's face flushed to match the colorful leaves.

Zelgadiss then turned toward Amelia. "Hello, Amelia. I still have your bracelet. I haven't forgotten your invitation, but as you can see, nothing has changed in my life worth sharing with anyone," he said deprecatingly. He had never come to terms with his magical form.

His bitter tone caused her to wince slightly. "It wouldn't have mattered to me; it never has," Amelia replied.

All he had to do was look into her eyes to see that she was being completely honest, but that was not the problem. His appearance and cursed form mattered enough to him, that it obliterated anyone else's opinion.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Xelloss chimed in with a wave of his gloved hand.

Zelgadiss shifted his eyes sideways, but otherwise remained unmoved, "I'm here at your invitation, Xelloss. So what kind of hoops are you going to ask us to jump through before you share your promised secrets this time?" he demanded, never one for much idle conversation and certainly not with what he considered to be a treacherous and dangerous demon.

Xelloss assumed a hurt tone, "You don't trust me? Well, actually--"

"Say, before you launch into one of your private verbal duels, boys, can we get down to the immediate business of eating this picnic!"

Gourry imagined a fanged likeness of Lina tearing into his shoulder if not properly fed. He shivered, and then suggested to the others, "Better get started eating."

"Actually, I was going to suggest that you **kids** begin eating, while I talk. I have a lot to say," Xelloss smiled weakly.

He knelt by the basket and removed loaves of warm bread, creamy cheese, fresh autumn apples, and dried hard salamis. He knew what Lina liked. He added a bread board and napkins and let the friends help themselves. Lina, Amelia, and Gourry plundered the food wielding their personal knives with combat expertise.

"Nothing for you, Zelgadiss?" Xelloss asked, his violet eyes searching for answers in the hooded blue ones.

"You know I require little nourishment," Zelgadiss grumbled frostily. Then, as if he had a change of heart, he said in a softer tone, "…but I will try some of that wine, as long as I'm waiting."

He sighed, resigned to enduring another delay, to hold on just a little longer to hear of news, hopefully…as promised… for his cure. Yes, possibly a magical treatment for his freakish condition, something Xelloss had hinted at. Was it real or only a way to lure Zelgadiss to this meeting, he wondered?

"Wonderful!" Xelloss hopped-to and opened several bottles. He poured overflowing glasses for everyone and passed them around. His hand lingered on Zel's glass, causing his fingers to touch those of the chimera.

Zel looked up in alarm. "Are you going to let me have the glass, or not?" snapped the embarrassed young man.

"Why, you're blushing, Zelgadiss," Xelloss smiled, then released his hold.

"Everybody satisfied? Especially you Lina?" Xelloss asked, playing the part of the gracious host to the hilt.

Lina nodded, her mouth too busy to speak.

"Well then," Xelloss began.

"Here it comes," muttered Zel.

"The fall has arrived at last. It's a season of changes and now the times are changing as well. The age of the War of the Dragons and the Demons has reached its end. The time of Humankind is here, and all the races are aware of this fact."

"But it took all the races working together to defeat Darkstar!" cried Amelia, dropping her bread and cheese in the brown grass. "They're all part of this world."

"True, but now the Dragons are few, the Gods have retreated and so have the Demon Lords."

"What?!" shouted Lina and Zelgadiss, both choking on their wine.

"Yes." Here Xelloss dropped his head, shielding his face from their stares. He was hurting, inside, not the feel good kind of pain that fed the souls of the Mazouku, but the pain of irretrievable loss.

"My M-Mistress, my M-Master relieved me of my duties. She bestowed upon me all her remaining powers to do with as I pleased. And now she too has joined with the spiritual 'soup', shall we say, from whence we demons arise."

"Xelloss are you telling me that Beastmaster Zelas is gone, forever? And that you are the last remaining Demon Lord anywhere?" asked Lina, disbelief plastered on her face. "That's a crock-load of shit for you to expect me to swallow!"

Xelloss smiled weakly, "That is why I brought a picnic for you, my … friends. It's to make the truth go down more…pleasantly."

"You lying bastard!" snarled Zelgadiss, "I should have known better than to think you'd have something of value to tell us. I don't have to stay and have my intelligence insulted." Zel jumped to his feet and glared at Xelloss a moment before stomping off.

"Please…give me a little more time, just a little more of your time to hear me out. Then, I too will leave you alone… forever." Xelloss spoke softly.

Something in his demeanor and tone of voice brought the retreating chimera back to the group. He shrugged his shoulders and sighed, "All right."

Using his glass as a pointer resulted in a sloshed mess on the grass, so Xelloss set it to floating at his side and spoke. "Immortality isn't all is cracked up to be. After a thousand years, single memories of lives long past fade away and new ones take their place. A few hundred years pass and there are new faces and events that repeat curiously over and over until the memories are confused with the waking reality."

Xelloss sighed, and then continued as if speaking to himself in a dreamlike way. "Are those creatures dying? Didn't they all ready die? Lina asks me to help them, but aren't they already past helping? You mortals are of the moment, each event is new and fresh and important. I have lost contact, nothing is important because it won't exist in my next time slice."

He turned to Zel and looked expectantly, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Ah, noooo," Gourry answered, shaking his head.

Lina started to say something insulting, but was silenced by a gesture from Zel, "He means he has lived long enough among mortals, Gourry. And has too few beings like himself to stay grounded in the here and now any more, am I right?"

"Yes, you have an interesting way of putting things, Zelgadiss, which is not surprising. You are affected by these changes as well, I suspect. All magic users lead extended lives, but your particular makeup has blessed you with near immortality, and susceptibility to fluxes in the astral plain."

"What? I'm human, not some…undying creature, despite appearances otherwise!" Zel shook with a mixture of pride and anger. Was he feeling alterations in his astral signature as his non-human parts sensed the changes? Was _that_ what was putting him on edge now? Or was it just Xelloss?

"Human soul, immortal body, I can fix that, BUT," Xelloss raised his voice and indicated to the incensed chimera to wait, "First I have some secrets to reveal and gifts to bestow."

That got everyone's undivided attention. Whether or not they were ready to believe all that the demon had told them so far, the promise of _freely given_ information sent up alarms. What if he had told them was the truth? What would that mean? No more dragons? No more demons?

Again, the deceivingly handsome man dipped his hand into the magical basket and pulled out… a picture. This he handed over to Amelia.

"Your sister is alive and well and living in the palace happily reunited with your father. She eagerly awaits your return in order to welcome you into her heart as soon as you wish. Would you like me to teleport you there now or…"

"Oh, Gracia! How wonderful! But, but... How did she get back? How did that all happen? Did you arrange that, Mr. Xelloss? Oh, I just have so many questions to ask and I want to go see her so badly, but I also want to find out what you've brought the others. Yes, give the others their gifts first!" Amelia replied.

"Very well, you won't have much longer to wait," and Xelloss withdrew an impossibly long, familiar-looking sword from the basket, "Gourry, this one's for you."

"The Sword of Light?!" shouted Gourry with an unbridled joy Lina thought was lost forever with the sword's departure. "Oh...wow!" How it could have fit in the smaller basket, was of no interest to Gourry. Magic rarely was, but the sword, now…that was real!

"Not quite, but very close to the original sword. When you lost it the first time in your pursuit of Lina, I retrieved it, if you remember. It was essential for events to flow according to plan, you know. I had a spare moment, and so, took the liberty to have a master Mazouku sword maker make a copy, in the event something un-foretold (to me anyway) happened to it. It's nearly perfect. I added a few improvements, like...no key mechanism is required and it can even kill Demon Lords, if there were any, in a single blow, that sort of thing. Hope you don't mind."

"Mind? Gods above, thank you Xelloss. This is the most amazing gift," and tears flowing freely, the tall man enveloped the smaller Mazouku in a heartfelt hug.

"Careful, Gourry. If you kill him with kindness, the rest of us will never get our gifts!" laughed Lina, overjoyed herself at her friends' happiness.

Gourry released his hold, but found the limp form in need of his support in order to sit down and not fall down, "Sorry, I forgot."

Xelloss shook off the weakness and in a moment was strong enough to go on, "Lina, it's your turn…"

This time he pulled out an ancient tome of magnificent craftsmanship. On the cover were cryptic runes and the words:

**COLLECTED MAZOUKU DARK SORCERY AND SPELLS**

_Property Of Beastmaster Lord Zelas Metallium   
_

Lina and Zel's lingering doubts about Xelloss' motives evaporated instantly.

"My Gods, Xelloss. What have you given me/her?" the two magic users cried together.

"I won't need it any longer. I'm sure she would have liked for you to have it, Lina. Well, maybe not, but it might have amused her to know that you would end up with it! Work through the book from the start, go slowly, and don't jump ahead to more…interesting parts. That would be dangerous. Oh yes, and my staff goes with it, but…not so fast!" He held it high out of her eager reach. "I still need to use it a little longer."

Lina was speechless for a time, but as the enormity of the situation sunk in she asked, "Xelloss, this is all real…what you've been telling us is the truth. Your races are dying!"

"Yes, Lina, that's right. Which means, of course that the spells which rely on or call upon the assistance of a demon lord (or the gods for that matter) won't work any longer, but there is plenty of 'good stuff' in there to make you the most powerful creature…ah… human being to walk the planet."

"Which brings me to you, _my_ favorite living thing," Xelloss smiled sincerely, but was rewarded a frown in return.

"I'm sure you don't have what I'm looking for in that basket," Zel said meaningfully.

"Don't be too sure! I can be pretty tricky, you know!" Xelloss reached in and tossed a small notebook to the disheartened chimera.

"What is it?" questioned Amelia excitedly.

"Rezo's last notebook, from the year printed on the cover…" Zel began.

"Check pages 132-138." Xelloss suggested.

Zel thumbed slowly through the pages and then stopped.

"Well? Don't keep us in suspense, is the way to undo the spell there?" screamed Lina.

"Yes," Zel answered simply. He was on an emotional see-saw. He should be thrilled to have found his cure at last, but he wasn't. But he should be. What was his problem? _Oh._ Yes, he had to come to terms with _that _admission at last, didn't he? What good was being 'cured' if the object he wished to impress was no longer around?

Xelloss watched his reaction intensely and with some trepidation, "With the use of my staff, Lina will have no trouble executing the anti-spell."

"I see, thank you," murmured the young man with no trace of the elation expected by the others.

"Zel? What's got into you? This is The Cure! Your search is over! You will be able to get on with your life!" cried Lina.

"Mr. Zelgadiss, isn't this the most wonderful gift of all? Aren't you overjoyed?" cried Amelia, teeming with emotion herself.

Zelgadiss shook his head and moved to leave—his emotions in turmoil. Turmoil, confusion and chaos. _He gives me a gift, but what a gift!_ _My cure, but for what?__ Not for what's ailing me now! Well, maybe, I mean, it was what I was after, right? Well, wasn't it? No? No. My cure, he grants me a cure at last, but what good will that do me if what he says is true? Not at such a cost. I'm losing a ... friend as well. After that loss, would anything be worth living for? Oh, gods, am I crazy? This is my key to humanity that he offers! But... Chaos-- wasn't that the only gift a demon could give; the only real promise that Xelloss could keep? Still... if there is a chance..._

"Where are you going?" Lina demanded of Zel's retreating back.

"Give him a moment." Xelloss shadowed him, and shot back to the group, "Stay there, everyone. Let me talk to him alone, hmmm?"

It was more of an order than a question. In light of the gifts, the friends thought that Xelloss was entitled to one of his own, and so they asked no questions, made no accusations, said nothing and waited.

Zelgadiss walked slowly, for him, going deeper into the forest. The beautiful colors of the autumn leaves glowing in the late afternoon sun escaped him. He was lost in sorrow, a sorrow so deep he would never be released from its grasp, and he didn't give a damn.

Xelloss stood apart, waiting. Waiting for a clue, an opening, a sign that he could release his last secrets.

Zel surprised Xelloss with his angry response, "And this is _it_? Now you, what, _diffuse_ to the astral plain and leave _me_, us, here to deal with the consequences?"

Xelloss shimmered inches from Zelgadiss, "Is that what concerns you? _Consequences?_ Or my leaving?"

"Both you idiot!" sputtered the youth, shaking in fear, and pain and sorrow, "But you wouldn't understand that..."

"That you'll miss me? What makes you think that I wouldn't understand? You _know_ I have feelings. I'm touched...really. No, please don't glare at me like that, I _mean_ it. No one else shares your consideration for my losses, for my passing. You heard them!" the purple haired man said sadly. "It means… everything to me, to know... _you_ cared."

"You _know_ that, and yet you're still going to die and never ever return? Just go off and leave me alone to deal with...everything."

"Well, you won't be alone if you use that cure. You'll be human again. Too weak and feeble to travel with Lina without re-training, but you can return to Seyruun for that…and I'm sure Amelia and you can live happily ever after…"

"I don't want to go to Seyruun. I don't want to be a goddamned prince. I don't even want to be a sinking human being any more if it means…"

"If it means _what?_" Xelloss asked, hope glimmering in his eyes. If only the passionate young man would look up and see that it was safe to say whatever was in his heart.

He did. Zelgadiss locked eyes with Xelloss; he had found at last what he had been searching for.

"If it means living the rest of my life…without you," Zel's voice cracked with emotion. "There, I said it!" he snorted.

"Well, actually you haven't said...**_IT_**," Xelloss teased him with a smile.

Zel looked away in thought. "I love you," he whispered.

He turned to face the demon, prepared for rejection. "There, I told another,**_ you,_** the most feared and last remaining demon… whatever you are… that I love... Oh, just laugh all you want. Now I am doubly, triply, oh hells, I don't know how many times over I'm cursed now. But... but it's over with..." Zelgadiss slumped to the forest floor, "Funny I find myself… relieved of the burden. No more secrets."

Xelloss gracefully sank beside him, "I love you too, if that makes you feel any better."

"A little." The barest trace of a smile curved the edges of his mouth.

"You know, I'm not really a man, or a woman…"

"Yeah, I suppose..." Zel didn't look up. "Like _that _helps..."

"Would you like to see me as I really am?" Xelloss asked.

Zelgadiss nodded and turned to watch Xelloss transform before his eyes. The familiar features faded and were lost in a swirling smoky mist. A single tendril separated from the rest at all but one point, and extended itself to touch the chimera's lips.

Zel's eyes grew wide as understanding filled his heart and soul. This was a spiritual entity communicating directly with his spirit, soothing his tortured soul, offering guidance to his confused mind and patient sympathy to his inconsolable heart. Silently, Zel accepted Xelloss' offer to end his struggle.

The moment lasted an instant, or an eternity, it no longer mattered. The swirling miasma engulfed the enlightened chimera, swallowing him whole, and then they were gone-- both the man and the spirit creature. The forest, empty where two life-forms had once rested, resumed its course; a squirrel scampering to a leaf pile and burying an acorn --the only animation remaining.

Lina startled by the sudden appearance of Xelloss' priest staff falling at her feet, called out, "Zel? Xelloss? What the hell's going on?! Zel, where did you run off to now? We wanna get going!"

Gourry placed a hand on her shoulder, "Its okay, Lina. They're both happy now, look." Gourry pointed to the orb-end of Xelloss' staff.

Hooked in the crook was the pink 'promise' bracelet that Amelia had given Zelgadiss the last time they had parted.

"Zel's not coming back either," Gourry acknowledged with that amazing insight given to those simple-minded, warm-hearted folk like the swordsman. "Guess he wanted a different kind of cure."

"Oh, yeah? Well, sure... Nothing left for us to do then, huh?" Lina shrugged. "Gonna miss them, ya know?"

Lina snatched up the staff, tossed the bracelet to the stunned princess, and shouted, "Let's go! Let's see what this new world has got to offer us!"

The End -- Changing Seasons, Changing Times.


End file.
